Indian advertising's most memorable Visa stories

A few years ago, Ajay Gahlaut, now deputy CCO of Ogilvy India, was on his way to Johannesburg for a shoot. Tagging along were teammates from Ogilvy, a director, and his production crew. Everyone passed immigration, and was ready to hit the road. Everyone except the director. “The director had a New Zealand passport but he had obtained his visa from India. Those days, there was tension brewing between South Africa and New Zealand and so the authorities started questioning why he didn’t get a stamp from Wellington instead.” 16 hours of detention at the airport later, they deported the director. Now Gahlaut and co. were left in a foreign land, shooting an ad film, without a director. To make matters interesting, the shoot involved a lion - a living, breathing, roaring one. It was a scary scenario but the crew managed to sail through eventually. “Not like the lion was going to listen to the director anyway,” quips Gahlaut. And here we thought people with passports from relatively more well-off nations don’t have visa hassles.

May the forex be with you

This story dates back to the time Rahul Mathew, current NCD of DDB Mudra, was with McCann Worldgroup. He flew to Sri Lanka for a shoot - his first overseas travel experience. Mathew was banking on a visa on arrival, a popular option among Indian visitors. “I arrived at 2 am, half- asleep. We had to fill the immigration form where they ask you the purpose of your visit. I had to choose between Business and Tourism and for some reason, I ticked ‘Tourism’.” Mathew discovered in the worst way possible, that visa on arrival works only for tourists and not for shoots, which count as business. And it wasn’t just a matter of filling out another form: such a visa had to be applied for in advance. A few minutes of back and forth later, the guy hinted: “You think of me, and I’ll think of you.” *nudge nudge wink wink* “I told him, you give me the visa and I’ll think of you every day,” Mathew laughs. The man behind the counter had already enquired into how many dollars Mathew was carrying and so, when he asked for a 100, Mathew had a minor heart attack. “No, no. `100,” the immigration officer clarified, much to Mathew’s relief. “In our country, even the traffic police take more money than that, I thought to myself.” But for once, India’s currency exchange rate was favourable, so `100 was worth 200 in Sri Lanka.

Yehi hai only choice, baby

Prashanth Challapalli, now chief integration officer at Leo Burnett South Asia, was working with another large agency in Mumbai, nearly a decade ago, heading some key brands. One day, he was offered a trip to Singapore to attend an important 8-day workshop, held by the network to discuss its new communication philosophy. Now, Challapalli knew all too well that he wasn’t the most-favoured account lead. Others wouldn't dwell on it, but that got him curious. “I asked why the others who were in the agency longer than me, were not being sent. Turns out, the first guy’s passport had been damaged and the second had run out of pages. The agency had to send someone and I was the default.” The network never successfully implemented its communication philosophy, but that conference turned out to be a life-changing experience - one that gave him the confidence to compete at a global level. “Irony is that the two guys I mentioned earlier, work in the same network as I do right now. Little does anyone know that my entire career trajectory changed because they couldn’t get their passports in order,” he says. Challapalli thinks he should buy them drinks at some point. We couldn’t agree more. Maybe a Singapore travel voucher too? Too much?

Czechs that bounce

You know how often adwallahs go to Prague for shoots and then turn work trips into extended personal holidays? Well, this isn’t that kind of story. In 2007, Akash Das, now ECD at Lowe Lintas, had just quit his job at Publicis Ambience. His wife Garima Khandelwal, now ECD at Mullen Lintas, was working in Prague for a couple of years, so he thought he’d pay her a visit and spend some time in the historical capital of Bohemia. But that didn’t happen because his visa application to the Czech Republic was rejected, twice. “The first time I applied the agent had told me to put ‘single’ in my form. No job, and I was going to spend three months with my wife who works in Prague. Obviously, they were going to reject it.” He was rejected the second time despite appropriate letters from their respective workplace because they didn’t have a marriage certificate. “Ultimately, we gave up and decided to meet midway in Istanbul, Turkey.” Seven years later, when both of them were with Lowe, they were offered to go to Prague for a shoot. “I was really worried, but this time we applied together, had our marriage certificate also, and were both working, so I guess that helped.”